Group Faults Facebook for Rejecting Pot-Related Ads

As marijuana becomes legal in certain states, a group for pot-related businesses is criticizing Facebook for refusing marijuana-related ads and promoted stories.

The National Cannabis Industry Association says Facebook refuses to let it promote links to news stories that mention the group or issues related to its members. The ban was first reported by GigaOm.

“We have tried on multiple occasions to pay to ‘boost’ posts on our Facebook page so that they reach more of our followers,” Taylor West of the Cannabis Industry Association told the Journal via email. West says the group was told such promotions would violate Facebook’s content policy.

A Facebook spokesman says the social media giant bans ads promoting the sale or use of the drug, but permits ads that advocate legalizing marijuana. “The latter is the type of content we do not want to censor,” said a spokesman.

Google also rejects ads for pot, even where legal. Google’s ad policy on drugs says the search giant “doesn’t allow substances that can alter the function of the brain to induce unnatural euphoria, or alter reality, such as marijuana, cocaine, magic mushrooms, herbal ecstasy, etc.” A spokesman says “we’re constantly updating and reviewing AdWords policies.”

Voters in Washington and Colorado approved measures that legalized marijuana for recreational use, although the drug remains illegal under federal law. Another 20 states, plus the District of Columbia, allow patients to obtain marijuana with a doctor’s prescription.

Facebook and Google could conceivably allow targeted ads only to states where pot is legal, but both say they are opting for a more uniform policy.